If you haven’t already, head over to the Lincoln Studies blog and check out the most recent post about the $2.8 million budget cut that Gov. Blagojevich slapped on the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. It’s already resulted in hour cutbacks and layoffs. Protestors marched outisde the governor’s house this past weekend, and more power to ’em.

I can understand that one has to tighten the belt from time to time. What I don’t get is the logic of hobbling the very institutions that will be pulling in tourist dollars during the upcoming Lincoln bicentennial. I also don’t get how you can lay people off and shut down important heritage sites and then enjoy a $6,000 commute from Chicago to Springfield on a taxpayer-funded private jet when you should be either staying in the official residence in the capital or (at least) flying commerically. Maybe that helps explain why only 13% of Illinois voters actually like this guy.